calling tom harkin.ke live radio and live television with a guest who doesn't show up. we heard from senator harkin's aidee during the break and he should be calling us shortly. if we catch him we will go to him right away. mean while we were talking about the heart attack grill out in vegas, another customer collapsing while eating a double by pass burger and smoking a cigarette and drinking a margarita. taxpayers calledpaid for it. >> the heart attack grill, normally, i am all for your opinions. but i've heard you say before that we shouldn't blame the victims even though it's bad judgment. i think we should still take care of them. >>a i am a bleeding-heart liberal and you are, too, obviously. but there are some limits. these people are just plain stupid, mike. >> oh, yeah, i believe so too. but let me tell you something. i had a heart attack right after eating luncheon and it had nothing to do with it. it turns out i had a vir russus and it had nothing to do with the hamburger i had just eaten. >> i

give particular thanks to senator lugar for his close work on this amendment as well as senators harkin and thune, and their staffs, who helped craft key parts of this agreement. i was also pleased to co-sponsor senator harkin's rural energy investment act in april which helped guide us in this amendment. i'm glad we've been able to reach a broad agreement on providing the mandatory funding for vital rural energy programs in the farm bill. i would ask unanimous consent to bring up the modified version of conrad amendment number 1. >> so ordered. >> this version includes technical corrections that clarifies that usda can continue to exercise the authority granted in the 2008 farm bill to exclude potentially invasive or noxious species of plants from eligibility for the biomass problem assistance program with regard to the 216 million dollars in total mandatory funding provided for section 9003, biorefinery assistance program, the modification place as cap of $25 million on the share of funding that may be used for biobased manufacturing and provide as definition of biobased manufacturing

harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. har mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that -- mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that paul edenfield, a member of my staff be granted floor privileges for the duration of this session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, i yield myself such time as i may consume. for more than a year i've been working on a series of hearings both here in washington, d.c. and in iowa focusing on the state of the american middle class. we've learned that the american middle class is disappearing, falling into the widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots. the people who do the real work in this country are being squeezed to the breaking point. their paychecks aren't rising. their benefits are disappearing. their pensions are disappearing. their jobs are being shipped overseas. when we looked into the causes of this crisis, we found that the middle class is not disappearing due to some i

i'd like to ask consent to senators conrad and harkin added as co-sponsor. >> without objection? >> madam chairwoman, i'll be brief. first, to compliment you very much in working with us to try to find and have found the beginning of a solution to the northern plains states including iowa, since senator harkin sponsors this. without getting into too much detail, essentially the mark has been modified by the chairman's mark, further modified by our amendment, and that affect of all this is that we're going to have a loss program based on actual -- or where the -- it's a revenue program requires loss of more than 10% based on past revenue. it's also unlike direct payments, based on actual planning. producer must make a one-time election and as modified, then the -- qualifying loss of 65% is applied to the payment. for county, it's up to 80%. maintained a 15% differential which is important to a lot of members of this committee. and i might say that the -- the modified amendment strikes the ten-year straight average and replaces it with a five-year olympic average, and it also, that

harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent paul eddenfield, a member of my staff be granted floor privileges for the remainder of today's session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, by the way, i yield myself how much time i consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, i also wanted to clear up one parliamentary question here. the occupant of the chair stated that we had two hours evenly divided. i believe that's today. for the agreement on the entire debate on the congressional review act if i'm not mistaken is four hours evenly divided? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. harkin: i thank the chair. this congressional review act challenges the latest chapter in an unprecedented republican assault on unions. the amount of time this congress has wasted scrutinizing and bullying the national labor relations board over the last two years is sim

harkin: mr. president in. the presiding officer: the senator iowa. mr. harkin: i ask that further proceedings you should the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent that march republican and shelby keegah be granted floor prills for the duration of today's session. officer without objection. mr. harkin: before i get to today's remarks that i came history of 0 give, i just had a very wonderful phone call from a young matt rutherford. i have spoken about him on the for that on a couple of occasions. he just made it safely home with -- on his boat, the saint brendan. he just crossed the finish line coming out of the atlantic ocean into the chesapeake bay. for those of how haven't followed this, about 310 -- 309 days ago young matt rutherford on a 20-foot sail boat left chesapeake bay on one of the most audacious adventures ever underteafnlt it's nevada been done before. he sailed his little boat out of chesapeake bay, sailed it in the atlantic ocean up around new finland, labrador, by gree

harkin: first mr. president, i have six unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be greenwood grooth and printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: a couple things i want to bring up here in response to some of the statements that were made here on the floor. first of all i want to make it very clear that the nlrb has griewp lusly followed all legal and procedural requirements for rule making under the administrative procedures act and by increasing the use of rule making has been the most inclusive and transparent board are in history. in history. this process has given all sides abundant opportunities to provide input to the nlrb. there is opportunity for written comments written responses to other comments and even a public hearing. again, i want to point out there is no requirement in the administrative procedures act to

i have spoken to senator harkin, who is aware of it. >> wow. let's move on to something a little bit different, certainly. now for something completely different, as monty python would say -- parliament. >> straight out of monty python, isn't it? >> how is it different than ours? >> the system is very different. it has some virtues and some negatives. i will run through the negative s. parties control. you cannot have an independent in our election. you can, but you will not get anywhere. you need to be selected by the party and your political career is substantially in the party and your voting record is controlled by the party and your very constituency is issued by the party, if you will. >> a little bit predestined. >> you have to take over the party before you take over the government, which is what tony blair did. but the thing everybody sees is question time, because cease- fire -- c-span, and their ingenious -- where was pbs? c-span ended genius has started running this highly entertaining weekly -- used to be twice a week, but now it i

it was sam brownback and tom harkin. obviously, we are keenly aware of the new language the appropriations committee has given us in our fy '12 appropriation. i think from the perspective of the commission, it's probably time to move on to other areas. that would not be a priority. but food marketing to kids is a priority and childhood obesity is a priority but that particular initiative i think we -- it's time to move on. now, under the chairman before me, who then served as commissioner with commissioner rosch and myself, he started an initiative called ftc at 100 in which we went out to all our stake holders, looked internally what should our priorities be in the coming five or ten years. i'll get you a copy of that, congressman, and it is something that -- it was a really good study that i go back and look at from time to time. it talks about what our priorities ought to be and by the way, what our priorities ought to be depending on sort of different -- different types of growth or levels of growth. i think we know

. >> senator harkin? >> aye by proxy. >> senator conrad. >> aye. >> senator baucus. >> aye. >> senator nelson. >> aye. >> senator brown. >> aye. >> senator casey. >> aye by proxy. >> senator klobuchar. >> aye. >> senator bennett. >> aye. >> senator gillibrand. >> no. >> chairwoman stabenow. >> aye. >> the total tally of senators present is 12 ayes, four nos. >> a majority of the committee being present and having voted in the affirmative, the committee print is ordered and reported to the senate as amended. i want to -- >> madam chair? >> -- without objection, let me just say the committee counsel is authorized to make technical and conforming changes consistent with the actions of the committee. and i want to thank everyone again for perfect work. >> madam chair? >> yes. >> i think there were five nos. >> yes. >> would the clerk repeat the final tally? >> sure. the total tally -- >> four present. one by proxy. >> i'm sorry. thank you, madam chair. >> let me just say in conclusion, again, this is a very h

. >>> up next, what a card carrying member of congress said today that harkined back to another time, not our proudest. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. what if the first step on that road is a bowl of soup? delicious campbell's soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do. [ laughs ] whoo. ♪ oh. nice! great! [ laughs ] a shot like that calls for a postgame celebration. [ male announcer ] share what you love with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're gr-r-eat! the amazing alternative to

something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. market. why no one should really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to congress report on our. virtual house wall leader takes the international team to stage for the first time in six years and i suppose that interview show persecutor whistleblower julian assange right here on r.t. . provocation by rebels against the syrian army only brings more violence in our minds the truth says the opposition inside the country sending signals it's ready to negotiate. and london swine twelve olympic sponsors counterfire as campaigners call into question their credibility saying against haven't turned it into a money making mission with advertising a top priority. so how and here in our team sports next financial farmer. hello good morning to you good to have your company and this is what is coming up advantage of a garbage man from inside period the place in our

there was a bill by defazio and harkin introduced a couple years ago that claimed it would raise $150 billion, just a tiny several basis point tax would raise all this money. and the second argument is it would reduce speculation, reduce somehow this volatility. let's take both of these argument. first on the money thing. the whole theme of this morning's panel about the states was if states raise taxes, people will just move and go explanation else or companies will move. well, that logic applies probably times ten or times a hundred in the capital market because money moves instantaneously. his firm moves it like that. you put on a very, very small tax in a market where roughly 50% of the volume is high frequency trading, you will basically wipe out 50% of the market right there. in addition -- so already just do the math, you're talking instead of $150 billion urks down to 75. but it gets worse. sweden tried a transactions tax in early 1990 and found essentially its trading went to other countries in europe. my prediction is if the french go ahead with this tax in august, you're ju

you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. down the official cation show on the phone called touch from the choose out still.

and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is off you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. book limbo. live. their lives. the speech. he gave. her her. mum will. ultimately be limitlessly and good luck. good luck lifts the money. come out of bottom a little. the emission free couldn't take should free things for charges free to make humans dream.

senator harkin, do you seek recognition now? the other point that i wanted to make on the question of whether the tax system is really progressive or not, the i.r.s. and the federal reserve point out that for the top 1% in america, the top 1% in terms of wealth control 33.8% of the nation's wealth. the top 1% in taxes pay only 28.3% of the taxes, when all taxes are taken into consideration. the top 5% control 60% of the nation's wealth. but the top 5% in taxes only pay 44.7%. so if you want to take numbers sort of without context, you can make it look as if it's very progressive. but when you measure against the wealth and inequality in this country and income inekwult in this country -- equality in this country it is hard to say we're running a progressive tax system. that is why as reuters reported, about 65% of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million face a lower tax rate than the median tax rate for moderate income earners making $100,000 or, less ÷ year. according to the congressional research service. >> what do you? how d

and he'd tell his people, don't -- he did not hold progress briefings like harkins did. there was always progress. schreiver hold the opposite. he told his people, look, give me the bad news. i can stand the bad news. i will not fire you for giving me the bad news. i will fire you if you don't give me the bad news, and they'd have a monthly briefing they called black saturday which was -- in which you talked about your problem. because his attitude was if we solve the problem, success will take care of itself. >> come to this statement you make in this book and i'll ask you why did you say that the -- george bush iraq war doomed to and donald rumsfeld due to resignation in disgrace because of his fervid war in iraq. >> because it had gone on all these years without any resolution whatsoever. we've spent god knows how much money involved in the process. we've lost a hell of a lot of life. we've inflicted terrible pain on the population of iraq and killed a hell of a lot of iraqi people for no good end. there still is no resolution to it. and no one has any idea of what's

and tom harkin. who was chairman of the help committee on health education, labor, and pensions has been placing a spotlight on the decline in arts education programs in grades k-12. the republicans we have that are our heroes and our friends are tom cochran, the republican from mississippi. i met with him last year. he's been great for us on the arts, and susan collins from maine, long-time moderate republican and supporter of public funding for the arts. and tom coburn is the one we were going to mention today as being not as wonderful as we would like him to be on the issue of the arts. and i wanted to mention that we have a couple -- is this the one? we have a list. all oklahoma, yeah. in the state of oklahoma, we've got -- in march of 2001, the oklahoma visual arts coalition received a grant of $15,000. in march -- that was in march of 2001. in may of 2001, the theater of oklahoma in oklahoma city, all five of these are in oklahoma city by the way received -- i'm sorry, 2011 rather. oklahoma vis

senator harkin, do you seek recognition now? the other point that i wanted to make on the question of whether the tax system is really progressive or not, the i.r.s. and the federal reserve point out that for the top 1% in america, the top 1% in terms of wealth control 33.8% of the nation's wealth. the top 1% in taxes pay only 28.3% of the taxes, when all taxes are taken into consideration. the top 5% control 60% of the nation's wealth. but the top 5% in taxes only pay 44.7%. so if you want to take numbers sort of without context, you can make it look as if it's very progressive. but when you measure against the wealth and inequality in this country and income inekwult in this country -- equality in this country it is hard to say we're running a progressive tax system. that is why as reuters reported, about 65% of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million face a lower tax rate than the median tax rate for moderate income earners making $100,000 or, less ÷ year. according to the congressional research service. mr. harkin: i yield t

else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. download the official anti obligation show on the phone or i pod touch from the i choose our story. one child's life on the go. video on demand oxys mind bold colors and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the potty dot com.

harkin: mr.president, just before the previous easter recess, i came to the floor to talk about a truly remarkable american, a visionary, a dreamer, an adventurer, most importantly a young man who has devoted himself to service to others far above and beyond the call of duty. the young man's name is matt rutherford. he is a 31-year-old, he just turned 31 about a week ago, an ohian and here is what he has done since last year. on june 13 of last year, this then-30-year-old young man got on board a 36-year-old, 27-foot-long alvan vega sailboat. 27-foot long, 36 years old, small sloop rig sailboat, and he set out on one of the most audacious adventures ever, ever contemplated by any sailor. he set out to circumnavigate the americas solo and nonstop. so here is what he did. on june 13 of last year, he left annapolis on this small 27-foot sailboat. he sailed out of chesapeake bay. he sailed up around nova scotia, new foundland, labrador, all the way up by greenland, all by himself. and then sailed the

in the cincinnati, what's facing students of america on july 1st. >> senator harkin and senator reidtudent loan rate. >> what it's been. >> since 2000. >> bi-partisan legislation, we were actually -- it's hard to believe, even four years ago, the president and the congress did some things bi-partisanly where we created. >> right. >> on good things like this. president bush signed it 3.4% interest rates for subsidized stafford student loans and that means that students, if this expires in july students loans', interest rate will double for low income working class kids. my wife was first in her family to go to college. her dad carried a union card working maintenance in ashleeville, ohio she could go to school because of grants and loans. she graduated without much debt because she had had a lot of help and tuition was more reasonable thinking. these students loans. romney came out and supported a position's position to freeze it but house and senate agreements are saying no. let it expire. who cares? >> their attitude. >> we have to do tax cuts for the rich at the same time. >> right

senator harkin, do you seek recognition now? the other point that i wanted to make on the question of whether the tax system is really progressive or not, the i.r.s. and the federal reserve point out that for the top 1% in america, the top 1% in terms of wealth control 33.8% of the nation's wealth. the top 1% in taxes pay only 28.3% of the taxes, when all taxes are taken into consideration. the top 5% control 60% of the nation's wealth. but the top 5% in taxes only pay 44.7%. so if you want to take numbers sort of without context, you can make it look as if it's very progressive. but when you measure against the wealth and inequality in this country and income inekwult in this country -- equality in this country it is hard to say we're running a progressive tax system. that is why as reuters reported, about 65% of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million face a lower tax rate than the median tax rate for moderate income earners making $100,000 or, less ÷ year. according to the congressional research service. mr. harkin: i yield t

tom harkin was chairman of the health committee on labour and pension.has been placing a spotlight on the decline in arts education programs in gate -- grades k-12. republicans who are our heroes and friends, tom cochran, whom i met with last year, he has been great with us in the arts, as well as susan collins, from maine. tom coburn is the one we run going to mention today as being not as wonderful as we would like to be on the issue of the arts. and i wanted to mention that we have a couple of -- is this the one right here? we have a list -- it is all oklahoma. in the state of oklahoma, in march of 2001 the oklahoma visual arts coalition received a grant of $15,000. that was in march of 2001. may of 2001 in oklahoma city, all five of these grantees are in oklahoma city, but the way. 2011. the oklahoma visual arts coalition was march of 2011. in may was a different theater in oklahoma. the oklahoma council of the arts, which is more of an umbrella organization in the community, gave $773,000 for the national endowment for the arts in oklahoma. july 201

you have a very conservative chuck grassley serving as senator, very liberal tom harkin serving as theor and this state really does pull back and forth. they hated -- hated -- the health care law and i think that helps romney. >> small town -- states with a large small town, rural populations, democrats in general, the president's had a really, really hard time. we have kind of a metro sexual president with a -- that doesn't go over well in the small town. it's just cultural. it is what it is. >> the state that gave birth to president obama, they don't like him as a metro sexual. charlie cook, david drucker, thanks so much. >>> how do you follow a 100-point spike? the market rundown is next. >>> how far did the secret service misconduct go? >>> but first, which president insisted that women be allowed to attend the white house correspondents' dinner? the answer and more coming up next on "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] if you want a luxury car with a standard power moon roof, standard keyless access, and standard leather-trimmed seats, then your choice is obvious.

. >> senator mike enzi, senator harkin, senator isaacs and are working on passing the workforce investment act. >> it helps unemployed women find jobs -- wia helps women find jobs. hopefully there will be more legislation. >> how will the lives of citizens be affected? >> discriminated against based on gender board and the congress has put two laws on the books to combat such discrimination. title 7 of the civil-rights act of 1964 and the equal pay act of 1963. >> although it is uncertain the future legislation regarding gender discrimination will be affected in the future, some find it comforting to have centers like the oed that solves discrimination cases. >> even though congress has put laws in action, the debate is whether or not the constitution, or rather, the equality clause the equal of the clause and the 14th amendment protect women from discrimination did >> supreme court justice antonin scalia does not believe women are protected by the constitution. he shares his view point in an interview with a magazine. he quotes -- >> i want to be protected by the constitution because when

i believe tom harkin -- chuck marr.you've scoped around the capital little bit and i are doing some other or tell us what brings you here. >> chuck marfa center on budget and policy priorities were a work on the focus on tax issues right now obviously the hot topic for us is divine budget, which hopefully will get to talk about today. also the whole issue of tax reform which i like to raise flags about as well. heading into the big debate which is about the tax cuts for the first step should be definitely released the high income start and then we can talk about the others. >> thanks, chuck. elspeth gilmore, resource generation. tell us about that. >> hi, i am elspeth gilmore, codirector and we are a national nonprofit that works for people 35 and under to mobilize with 12 come as we been recently identified as a 1%. i figured how to mobilize resources and access to actually move towards progressive social change. the recently we've been working on a tax equity campaign and it's been really exciting to figure out how th

and i believe tom harkin is bringing it up. chuck marr. you've scoped around the capitol and now you're doing some other work. tell us about what brings you here. >> i'm chick marr from budget policies, an focus on tax issues. we're focusing on the ryan budget, which hopefully we'll get to talk about today. also, the whole issue of tax reform, which i'd like to raise some flags about as well. heading into the big debate this year is what to do about the bush tax cuts, where we think the first step should be to let the high-income ones to come. thanks, chuck. elspeth gilmore. tell us about that. >> i'm one of the co-directors of resource generation and we're a national nonprofit that works with people 35 and under to mobilize with wealth. so we've been recently identifying as the 1% and figuring out how we can mobilize our resources and our access to actually move towards progressive social change. recently we've been working on a tax equity campaign and it's been exciting to figure out how the 1% can speak out in the moment and occupy wall

i want to thank senators akaka, begich, leahy, harkin, blumenthal, sanders, schumer, reed of rhode island rockefeller, franken, boxer, durbin and levin for cosponsor this measure, and i would ask unanimous consent to add senator lautenberg as an additional cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: the structure of the bill is pretty simple. if your total income, capital gains included, is over $2 million, you calculate your taxes under the regular system. and if your effective rate turns out to be greater than 30%, you pay that rate. if, on the other hand, your effective tax rate is below 30% 30% -- like the 11% tax rate warren buffett paid in 2010 -- then you'd pay the fair share tax of 30% instead. taxpayers earning less than $1 million -- which is more than 99.8% of americans -- would not be affected by the bill at all. for taxpayers earning between $1 million and $2 million, the fair share tax gets gradually phased in so that ultimately when you earn over $2 million, you're subject to the full 30% minimum rate. the one exception the bill makes to the 30% min

and that argument, you heard president obama harkining back to the g.i. bill which helped his grandfather get an education. it's the rights and responsibilities i think that does allow candidates from either party to connect and transcend partisan divide. the problem is this time around youth unemployment is very high. that's an area where mitt romney and the republicans can make a credible argument and say obama's policies have not worked out for young people. that's one area i think you'll see an attempt to erase some of this youth advantage the president obama had. certainly in the last election 2 to 1 and currently has as well. >> john, we're going to hear from mitt romney, 9:00 this evening. a major speech, assuming that he is going to essentially say i am the republican candidate now. he won't have the numbers but the momentum. nobody is going to get in his way. do we anticipate that, a, he might make an announcement regarding a v.p. pick or is that way down the line, secondly, do we think this is an opportunity for newt gingrich to get out of the r

tom harkin bringing it up. chuck marr, you have scoped around -- spoke to run the little bit. what brings you here? >> i am mike lapham from the senate on budget policy priorities where i work on tax issues. right now, the hot topic for us is the ryan budget, which hopefully we will get to talk about today. also the whole issue of tax reform, which i like to raise some flights about. -- flags about. heading into the really big debate this year which is what to do about the bush tax cuts, where we think the for steps to be -- a first step should be. to let sunsets expire. >> thank you. elspeth gilmore, resources generation. >> absolutely. i want to say that the way occupy has shifted the debate has been huge. we are at a moment when the folks in this room, the people i works with, and the staffers, had a chance to move that moment forward and figure out how to capitalize on that. >> thank you. i think it is significant for anybody to bring something to the forefront because it is never easy. rebecca, you have been working a lot on the history of tax policy. i realize that this

interesting to note, senator tom harkin, the democrat from iowa, has really led the way on this one.se schools. he's held five hearings on these schools. so i would expect as we see higher education getting a lot of attention in this administration, that for-profits will be at the forefront of that one. >> poppy, thank you. once again, president obama and the first lady visiting u.s. troops in georgia today. surface the president starts to speak, we will take it live. >>> john edwards' personal and professional life under the microscope in a north carolina courtroom. he is on trial for misusing campaign funds. diane dimond will have a live report on today's testimony coming up. here is what she said earlier about edwards' appearance. >> and he's got his impeccable suit on and his perfect gq look, and seems very engaged at the defense table. >> looking for a new computer? you may want to wait a couple months for a better price. we're going to tell you why up next. ♪ in the franchise to get the word out. that could work. or you could use every door direct mail from the postal service.

amy, tom harkin, chuck schumer. any others? oh, the most senior of the mam all! we are getting there, we are getting there. ok, i want all of our colleagues from the house to raise their hands so they can be acknowledged. [applause] wave to barbara. and now for our surprise guest. barbour kept saying to me, why can't we start the program? people have to get to the food and refreshments and the desert. i said, just a few more minutes. who are we waiting for? she is never in patient, you know that. [laughter] it is a tremendous honor for all of us at a real sign of the respect and regard with which senator barbara mikulski has been held for decades, and now passing this great record, this one best serving woman, most accomplished woman and the congress of the united states ever. for us to have with us a person who has been a champion for the american people, a person who has been a champion for america's women. a bill that is coming up soon, the violence against women act, has no greater champion that are vice president, joe biden -- than out vice-president, joe bi

. >> smith: what disturbs harkin and other critics is that more than a third of all gi bill dollars areing up at for-profit colleges. it's a disproportionate share, and it appears to be growing. >> overall spending on veterans' education went from less than $5 billion in 2009 to nearly $10 billion in 2010, and a lot of that is driven by for-profit colleges and their wooing of veterans. >> smith: veterans like mike digiacomo, w dreamed of pursuing a career in computer animation when he left the army. he had learned about a for-profit school, gibbs college in boston, from a tv ad. when he spoke to a recruiter there, he was told they had connections to some of the biggest hollywood studios. >> they did say they had connections to get into pixar. pixar was pretty much the stereotypical dream of all the animation students. so i thought that i would be able to live comfortably and support a family and... and do what i loved. >> smith: the school refutes it, but digiacomo claims gibbs never proved proper computer animation training.y >> nobody in my family had gone to college. we didn't know t

amy, tom harkin, chuck schumer. any others? oh, the most senior of the mam all! we are getting there, we are getting there. ok, i want all of our colleagues from t house to raise their hands so they can be acknowledged. [applause] wave to barbara. annow for our surprise guest. barbour kept saying to me, why can't we start the program? people have to get to the food and refreshments and the desert. i said, just a few more minutes. who are we waiting for? she is never in patient, you know that. [laughter] it is a trendous honor for all of us at a real sign of the respect and regard with which senator barbara mikulski has been held for decades, and now passing this great record,his one best serving woman, most accomplished woman and the congress of the united states ever. for us to have with us a person whhas been a champiofor the american people, a person who has been a chaion for america's women. a bill that is coming up soon, the violence against women act, has no greater champion that are vice president, joe biden -- than out vice-president, joe biden. [applause

i want to thank senators akaka, begich, leahy, harkin, blumenthal, sanders, schumer, reed of rhode island, rockefeller, franken, boxer, durbin and levin for cosponsor this measure, and i would ask unanimous consent to add senator lautenberg as an additional cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: the structure of the bill is pretty simple. if your total income, capital gains included, is over $2 million, you calculate your taxes under the regular system. and if your effective rate turns out to be greater than 30%, you pay that rate. if, on the other hand, your effective tax rate is below 30% 30% -- like the 11% tax rate warren buffett paid in 2010 -- then you'd pay the fair share tax of 30% instead. taxpayers earning less than $1 million -- which is more than 99.8% of americans -- would not be affected by the bill at all. for taxpayers earning between $1 million and $2 million, the fair share tax gets gradually phased in so that ultimately when you earn over $2 million, you're subject to the full 30% minimum rate. the one exception the bill makes to the 30% mi

the tax we mentioned earlier as proposed by senator harkin, tom harkin from iowa and peter defazio fromn in the house. that was scored by the joint tax committee as raising $400 billion of the next decade. that's a very low tax. the taxes paid exclusively by wall street types engage in heavy trading. they will all say oh your 401(k), you won't even notice. anyone who notices is probably doing something they should be doing. it is a great tax and it would be great to see if we could make headway on that. >> bob. we are hearing a lot about personal taxes. a little bit about speculation? corporate taxes, anything we should be talking about there? >> that is what we should boast we be talking about in tax reform. on the individual side, it's kind of complicated and too many things to the internal revenue service that the mortgage interest and action in the charitable deduction and so forth, they are not undermining taxpayer intended to go on the other hand on the corporate side it's an absolute mess. on average, the companies are paying half of what they are supposed to pay but some of them

i didn't want to harkin back to any. but i that?et rhymes with leap. >> i'm always thinking about the investing angle. if twitter says they're going to go public as a result of this, then we're going to have to figure something now. >> what does that say? >> i have one tweet. don't look for a lot of these. how often do i need to do this? >> you know what? i have to go to the bathroom. can i tweet that right now? >> no, no, this is too much! we have much more "squawk box" after the break. including earnings from citigroup. >> this was a huge success. >> it was. >> coming up, a tax cutting champion. grover norquist talks about shrinking the government, the buffett rule and the battle on both sides of the aisle. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. [ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned inter

you have a democratic senator from iowa, tom harkin, who says this -- the program is a terrific proposal obama's goal of america once again having the highest proportion of college educated citizens in the world by 2020 but taxpayer funded dog walking classes do not help meet that goal. so maybe there should be a little bit more oversight. i mean, how many more stories like this do we have to do before we realize that one way to cut all the spending in this country is to actually get rid of the fraud that's going on. >> oversight is good. but so is a program like this. also happens to be good. i'm in favor -- i'm in favor of these programs. >> but the money is supposed to go to military spouses and so -- >> supposed to get education to go to college. i'm not sure -- >> gretchen, i have a very soft spot for the animals and the service dogs. >> i believe it does train people to train dogs and stuff like that so it trains them in this. >> i don't mean to be the dissenting voice on the curvy couch. >> believe me. >> this guy has looked at what the requirements are and he has fulfilled them a

tom harkin, chuck schumer. any others? the most senior of them all. i don't know.e are getting there. i want all our colleagues from the house to waive their hands so they can be acknowledged. [applause] to barbara. now for our surprise guest. barbara can say and why can't we start the program? people have to get to the food and what do it is in the desert. i have a few more minutes. who are we waiting for? she is never in patient. you know that but it really is a tremendous honor for all of us and a real sign of the respect and regard in which senator barbara mikulski has been held for decades and passing this great record, longest serving woman most accomplished woman in congress of the united states ever. for us to have with the same person who has been a champion for the american people, a person who has been a champion for america's women. a bill that is coming up soon. the violence against women act has no greater champion then vice president joe biden. [cheers and applause] >> kennelly said catholic girls stick together. let me tell you we catholic boys have

the tax proposed by tom harkin and others were scored as raising $400 billion over the next decade. that is a low tax. that is paid almost exclusively by a wall street-types. they will say, your 401k held over. he will not even notice. anybody who notices is doing something they should not be doing. it is a great tax. i am glad to see it being talked about. >> bob? we're hearing a lot about personal taxes. corporate taxes? anything we should be talking about? >> that is what we should be talking about in tax reform. the individual side, i mean, it is complicated and we do too many things through the internal revenue service. the mortgage interest deduction and the charitable deduction and so forth, they are not undermining taxpayers. on the corporate side, it is an absolute mess. on average, the big companies are paying half what they are supposed to. some of them are playing full freight . >> what do you mean? >> they're not paying its. on average. that is right. some of them are. some of them are paying 35% and some are paying nothing. that is a weird way to even run an economy as

tom harkin was chairman of the health committee on labour and pension.e has been placing a spotlight on the decline in arts education programs in gate -- grades k-12. republicans who are our heroes and friends, tom cochran, whom i met with last year, he has been great with us in the arts, as well as susan collins, from maine. tom coburn is the one we run going to mention today as being not as wonderful as we would like to be on the issue of the arts. and i wanted to mention that we have a couple of -- is this the one right here? we have a list -- it is all oklahoma. in the state of oklahoma, in march of 2001 the oklahoma visual arts coalition received a grant of $15,000. that was in march of 2001. may of 2001 in oklahoma city, all five of these grantees are in oklahoma city, but the way. 2011. the oklahoma visual arts coalition was march of 2011. in may was a different theater in oklahoma. the oklahoma council of the arts, which is more of an umbrella organization in the community, gave $773,000 for the national endowment for the arts in oklahoma. july 2